You're a mensch, Jaime! You will be an invaluable resource for your friend, I hope she takes advantage of you.

Uh... in the non-sexual way, of course. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Edited to add: yeah, I nuke the heck out of the boca burger until it is actually a bit dry and shriveled and then schmear with a bit of maple syrup. On a bagel it is vaguely like what I remember a "maple sausage bagel" tasting like. But then I haven't had sausage in forever so I could be way off. Whatever, I like it.

Tessa, sorry for the mess. I was in 2nd grade when I had lice. Never again. I had long hair (all the way to my hip) back then and my mom was so worried.

Heather, hang in there my dear. It will be over soon.

Billie, Sorry your foot hurts but I'm happy you're going to get it checked. I hope it's nothing serious. Yay to staying OP.

Vix, good to see you are staying away from the cookies and fries. I know it's hard and you are making great choices . I am not much of a fries person...I mean I like them but don't crave them. But I do love onion rings. So I'm staying away from them.

Oh I thought I'd mention, as far as being like a lady in 2009 and cussing less goes...I've not been successful. The moment I sat in my car and was on the road all lady like behavior went out the window. Cuz people are freakin idiots here in MD when it comes to driving. So maybe next year I'll try again

Jo - I didn't know you got new shoes! I get excited over new shoes. I really need new shoes. I also needed to look up "mensch" as I didn't know if it was a compliment or an insult. ("Yeah, Jo, well you're a meshuganuh!")

Nuked a boca burger once - it was all watery and limp when it came out. eek. Much more satisfying to stick it in a pan... But I could see where the bb + maple thing tastes vaguely like sausage. Tempting.

Anjuli - drivers EVERYWHERE are dimwits, but I agree - MD has some awful ones. As soon as I pass the welcome to MD sign on 495 I know to tighten my seatbelt and be ready to get sideswiped at any moment. People are nutso.

Yeah, when I nuke them, I nuke them HARD. They stop being watery and start getting... chewy (or as my husband would say, "what is that lump of crap you just burned in the microwave?!?!").

I believe I've already mentioned my penchant for "cooking" things until very, very dark.

Jo -I'm just going to throw this out there. Buy the sausage flavored meat? Okay on the shoes - do you do the whole gait thing or do you know what to buy? Because this is what I'm afraid of - dealing with the people at the running store and being like "oh yeah no leather dude". Of course I'll do it but I prefer to limit my weird looks in a day.

Jaime - Good advice to the friend, I hope she sticks with it.

Re drivers. I almost hit a person yesterday. Yes a person not a car. About 1,000 cars were heading down 3rd street (means nothing to you I realize but heads out of uptown and very busy) at 5:30pm. I was traveling about 40mph and a guy stepped off the sidewalk AFTER looking at the 4lanes of cars coming at him. I was in the far left lane where he first stepped, slammed on my brakes and honked. He looked at me with a blank expressiona and continued where guy in next lane had to slam on breaks and honk. This was nowhere near a stoplight/crosswalk/safe place to cross. He either had a death wish or was a crackhead but it scared the **** out of me.

Oh NO!! That's sooo terrible. My sister has 4 kids and has been through this TWICE. The second time she called me crying. I feel so bad for you. And I feel bad for your little 10 year old too, I got a busted eardrum in a sparring match once (by a hard punch to the jaw) and I couldn't open my jaw to eat for days. You are having a day from ****! Hope it looks up soon.

I'm going with siggy names, so if I'm wrong...forgive me!

Heather: PMS sux. I think that's why I cried all last week. I hate crying. Stupid hormones.

Jamie: I was like that for a long time...wanting to lose it all in a day, and wondering why 30 lbs took a year or more to come off. I finally realized that it took me (say) 5 years to put it on...so it's gonna take that long, at least to take it off. I took a nutrition class and a fitnes class as part of my college courses. I actually learned a few things in both classes. and don't they call the bingeyness during college the "college 20?"

Joesephine: I much rather spread the internet itchies, than the real ones...although I'm not sure that helps. What kinda shoes did you get? I bought Nike's Pegesus shoes, and O!M!G! I totally love them. It's like walking on air. I have terrible feet, yet these shoes will help me stand/walk/whatever for a good 4 hours more than normal! Best. Shoes. Ever. (Although, IMO, they were a bit pricey!)

Crud: Spellcheck doesn't work on this forum for me. Sigh.

My grocery store only carries MorningStar Farms faux sausage, not vegan. Boo hiss. They are giant lame-o's.

The local running store put me on a treadmill and watched me run and also watched me walk around barefoot in order to analyze my gait. They looked at my feet. They looked at the bottom of my current shoes to check the wear pattern. And they asked me general questions about my running/goals. Then they pronounced: You are a "neutral" runner and a mid-foot striker (which I already knew from seeing pictures of myself running).

I told them I was vegan and so they only brought out shoes (for neutral runners) where the box said "all synthetic materials". They did not look at me funny at all -- obviously other vegan runners shop there. I thought for sure I'd get another pair of New Balances, but the shoe that felt the absolute dreamiest on my foot is a "Nike Air Zoom Vomero+ 3" (that's a mouthful isn't it?). They seriously ROCK.

I watched GW on the treadmill last week.

Local cop says jailfood is great for weight loss. You get barely enough to sustain. As it is bologna on white bread, I would be down to 120 in no time!

Nice snack

Those butt heads.
Can't you find someone to do that for you?

I just wondered if you felt it was helping

Good for you for braking.

Jaime--it sounds like your friend has a lot of work to do with the mental side of weight loss. You seem to have given her a lot of insight.

Oh cool, I really did not know what to expect - note to self make sure feet are clean
I like the NB I have but I've been el stupido and worn them to walk the dogs in (just don't need as much support - an older pair would've done fine), run errands in etc. New pair will be running only! I think I'm a heel striker which I'm working on. Yea!! I'm so excited!

Yes, I'm still using it and yes it was worth buying it for me. It gave me accountability that I needed. (I'm not counting last month). I noticed myself taking extra steps just so I could manage 10k steps/day (which is the default setting and you can change it if you want). I was walking more just so it would add to my # of daily steps. So it was kind of a mindset change for me. It showed me how much I burn without any workouts and minimal activity. So for me my SenseWear was basically the warden with a stick aiming at my a** if I slipped. I know it's pathetic that I would need a warden but if it works it works.

I love to cook and make a lot of stuff from scratch so one of my biggest worry was if I would be able to add my own recipe/ingredient to the software. I don't cook regular American food all the time & I wasn't sure if they would be listed in their DB. But I was pleasantly surprised. Not only do they have an extensive DB it's very easy to add my own recipe. And its also very easy to add any ingredient in there as long as I have the nutritional value for them. It was bliss for me . And I can refer to it in future. So you can build on the resources.

I am able to see how much cholesterol I'm intaking and luckily it's been minimal for a while. This was more important for me than any other stuff since my last physical showed a higher cholesterol level. And of course I can check my Carb, Protein, Fiber etc too. I'm coming more carb heavy (not overly though) than I would like but for a brief time I'm sticking to calories in vs calories out. I can also check my sleep pattern and the efficiency of it. And I've noticed I've yet to reach a 100% efficiency for sleep.

But if you're allergic to metal it might not be a good thing. I'm allergic to lot of metals except stainless steel, gold (has to be certain kt) and platinum. And even though it says the metal at the back is SS I still reacted. I clean it every morning with rubbing alcohol but still doesn't help much. So this is just FYI. I do take it off once in a while to give my arm a rest once it's all red. And it wasn't fun when I went to FL. Cuz the sunscreen would drip down to it and you're not supposed to have any lotion or anything on the arm touching the metallic part. I don't sweat a lot normally but I did when I went to FL.

It has built in activities where if you take it off for more than half an hour and then plug it in to upload data it will ask you what you did during such and such time. You have several different options you can choose from. Like for example, you can say that you were not active or were taking shower or cleaning house etc.

I lost 33 lbs last year. I could have lost more yes but I'm happy with that achievement. I had few slips which is my fault not SW's fault. You can set your goals in the profile. Oh and it will also manage Blood Pressure and Body Fat%...which I was doing until recently. So like I said I started afresh this monday and we'll see how things go.

Any other questions? I would be happy to answer any question

Irritating ad at cal-count....

It takes whatever you enter, transfers it to the ad and says, "why eat 83 calories, when you could have..." and the the ad morphs to a sugar free jell-o product. "Because every diet needs a little wiggle room"

Boca burgers I do them in toaster oven. I tried nuking, toaster oven and pan. I decided toaster oven was better for me . I have this thing where I don't like mixing salt and sweet stuff. So I know I won't like maple on boca. I'm weird like that

Jaime, I can't imagine anyone better than you trying to help your friend. I agree she'd be foolish if she does not accept your help and learn from you. I can relate so much with her wanting to lose everything FAST and binging. And last year for me has been so much of a struggle with self and learning/developing new habits. I hope she is patient and is willing to accept help.

MD drivers I think are one of the worst. Of course I am one of the MD drivers but I drive carefully. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, MD is 2nd worst in the nation when it comes to road rage and high commute. And Heather, I've had idiots like that crossing roads when cars are coming at them. And yes it is very scary. I'm glad you were able to brake on time.

Heather, do you use extra firm or firm tofu for stir fry? Thanks

I find it ironic that I somehow pulled my back while scrubbing the shower. I just knew cleaning was bad for me. I'll never do it again.